Lookie Here

  My latest, newest, biggest project yet.  A flamingo.....and hopefully not an engineering nightmare.  I'm shooting for the classic one leg pose.  I have a one inch oak dowel for his leg, secured inside his body with that crazy gap fill foam you get at Home Depot.  The dowel is going thru a hole in the plywood into a trash can, which supports him while I work on the body.  The leg is solid as a rock.... now I need  to get him balanced/mounted on a base that's not too huge, but can support his weight, and not tip over.  I was going to wimp out and have him sitting on the ground with no legs showing, but he looked too much like a garden planter, and I need to learn and challenge myself, so I can do bigger and bigger pieces.  Stay tuned,  it should be interesting!

Thinking BIG

  Here is the last in process picture of my elephant sculpture, as his paint job nears completion.  I've decided to change his name to "Tembo".  I was really trying to convey elephant "spirit" with this paint scheme, instead of just elephant, and I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  He needs a bit more shadowing to accent his 3D look and a coat of clear satin finish to complete and protect him.

  I am always thinking about making a really BIG paper mache sculpture.  I even looked up the world record, and its about 7' tall by 28' in circumference.  But wouldn't it be fun to make one bigger!  I would so wish to get a grant or an artist in residency to actually create one of these huge sculptures right on the spot it was to be displayed.  People would come by daily and watch as the piece slowly took shape and came to life.

Here we go....at last

 

The paint job on my elephant is finally taking a direction.  Kind of an avenging elephant spirit/day of the dead sort of theme.  Loosely based on one of my favorite movies.... "The Crow".    He would be the re-incarnated elephant spirit, who would avenge and strike fear into all those who have mistreated his elephant kin.

  I should finish him up this weekend, and the final pix will be up on my Face Book page and the website. New project posts will be following next!

  www.studioosterberg.com

A little bit of Color

  So here is Hobart with a bit of color blocked in.  I like it.  Kind of like a split personality.  Maybe I'll make him comedy on one side and tragedy on the other.  Maybe some local style tattoo work.  Don't exactly know for sure yet.............  I'm just feeling around in the dark, till I find the "light switch".
   Got a flamingo and 2 kookie fish, and a squirrel in the works right now too, with a dragon on the wish list.  It will a busy couple of weeks!

Hobart

  Here is an in process picture of my latest sculpture.  A little elephant I've named Hobart.  Picked out some colors for him yesterday at Home Depot.  The little sampler jars of test color you can buy there are the perfect size for these sculptures.
  Most of the time I don't try to paint my animals to look like the real thing.  I consider them blank canvases to use as I please to convey something to the viewer, or just to relate something I feel like saying. 
  All the times I have ever saw live elephants, they were being put to use by man to perform tricks, or amuse people.  A far cry from being the monarchs of the African plains that they are in real life.  I have an idea that this bit of tragedy will come to light when I paint him.
  I will be posting daily progress pictures of Hobart to document the path he takes to being finished.

The highs an looooows

Wow,  just looked back at my last blog post, and my how things have changed.  I had worked my way up to selling a few florals every month in a prestigious gallery here in Hawaii and feeling pretty good about the way things were headed.  Then unexpectedly, the gallery closed, so I decided to make a major time and money investment, and enter the Marin art festival in CA, last June.  After investing upwards of $2,500 in shipping, transportation, lodging, and entry fees, we made a whopping $375 at the show.  MAJOR DOWNER.  Haven't painted since.
  So was the failure a curse or a blessing?  I have now turned my desire to create art towards sculpture, and more specifically paper mache.  I am also making what I want, instead of pressuring myself into trying to make things which should sell.  The paper mache is being received well in its limited exposure to public, so who knows where it will go.  I just know one thing..  Its really fun!

www.studioosterberg.com